Clauses and amendments reference: AP US Government Study Guide

CONSTITUTIONAL CLAUSES

Clause	What it does / how to use it
Commerce Clause	Gives Congress power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the states, and with Indian tribes. Compare broad and limited readings of national commerce power, especially Lopez
Necessary and Proper Clause	Allows Congress to choose appropriate means for carrying its enumerated powers into execution. Use for implied powers and McCulloch
Supremacy Clause	Makes the Constitution, valid federal laws, and treaties supreme over conflicting state law. It resolves a conflict only when the federal action is constitutionally valid
Establishment Clause	Restricts government establishment or sponsorship of religion. Distinguish government-sponsored religious activity from protected individual expression
Free Exercise Clause	Protects religious exercise against government burdens, subject to current constitutional doctrine. Use for Yoder and conflicts between religious practice and public policy
Free Speech Clause	Protects expression, with doctrine varying by context and category. Use for Tinker, Schenck as historical doctrine, and modern incitement principles
Free Press Clause	Protects publication and creates a particularly heavy burden for government efforts to impose prior restraint
Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause	Requires constitutionally adequate process before certain government deprivations, protects certain liberty interests through substantive due process doctrine, and is the principal mechanism for selective incorporation of most Bill of Rights protections against the states
Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection Clause	Limits discriminatory state action and is central to Brown, Baker, and Shaw

KEY AMENDMENTS

Amendment	Core rule
First	Speech, press, religion, assembly, and petition
Second	Right to keep and bear arms; incorporated against state and local governments in McDonald
Fourth	Protection against unreasonable searches and seizures
Fifth	Federal due process, protection against compelled self-incrimination, and other criminal-procedure protections
Sixth	Criminal-trial rights including counsel; Gideon applies the counsel guarantee to states in felony cases
Eighth	Protection against cruel and unusual punishment and excessive bail or fines
Tenth	Reserves powers not delegated to the United States, and not prohibited to the states, to the states or the people
Thirteenth	Abolishes slavery and involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime after conviction; gives Congress enforcement power
Fourteenth	Citizenship, Due Process, and Equal Protection; central to incorporation and civil-rights litigation
Fifteenth	Bars denial or abridgment of the vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude; gives Congress enforcement power
Nineteenth	Bars denial or abridgment of the vote on account of sex
Twenty-Second	Limits a president to election to the office twice, with an additional rule for a successor who serves more than two years of another president’s term. Use as a constitutional limit on presidential tenure
Twenty-Fourth	Bars poll taxes in federal elections
Twenty-Sixth	Bars denial of the vote to citizens age eighteen or older on account of age